Division International Studies

My grandmother is 94 but that is not the reason she never remembers my birthday. Rather the reason is that her generation does not celebrate birthdays but name days so she does duly call me every year on the 24^th of November, Catherine’s day according to the French name day calendar. What does this show? That important dates are socially constructed and culturally rooted, and what is true for people is so also for states. If you grow up in an established nation-state with a clear founding date you might think that it is natural to celebrate a 4^th of July (USA), 1^st of October (China) or  14^th of July (France). Yet, at their origin these dates have been decreed as dates of remembrance for events which symbolically represent what the, at the time, new state wants to be about. On 14^th of July the city mobs of Paris stormed the fort of the Bastille, an act of vandalism in normal times but stylized as an act of liberation from feudal rule and of the people’s grasp for power. Choosing this date rather than the date of the proclamation of the Declaration of the Rights of the Citizen and of Man on 26 August 1789 was at the time when the National Day was decreed also a political compromise. After the defeat of the Paris Commune and in the midst of its economic miracle in the IIIrd Republic the French government of 1880 had a strong interest to choose a date that would honour the contribution of the otherwise disdained Parisian plebs.  The date of the 14^th July allowed not only that but was also conveniently in summer, contrary for example to the date of the decapitation of the King on the 21^st January, allowing the still continuing tradition of balls and street parties.

How difficult it can be to find an appropriate date can be seen in Germany’s debate about its national day 20 years ago. Shouldn’t it be today, 9^th November, the day when the Berlin Wall fell? Certainly, for Germans East and West the fall of the Wall was the single event where all would agree that it was worth a party. Those restrictions on travel and exchange with the other Germany, which the Wall represented, were a burden for all of us, whether one supported the GDR or not. That summer of 1989 I had spent two days in Berlin mourning our childhood friendship with friend from Potsdam because he was off to study Physics in Jena and thus forbidden to have friends in the West. We were prepared to never see each other again.  Obviously, he was the first person I phoned the morning of the 10^th November (well, actually I called his mum because they didn’t have a phone at home, only at work). It is also the date where all options still seemed open, where we were not yet talking of “re-unification”, where a third way seem possible, where there was hope, joy, relief and fun, fun, fun (to get a grasp of this time you can watch the film “Good-Bye Lenin” or “Sonnenallee”). Much of this hope vanished quickly after and much of the enthusiasm turned very quickly sour, leaving more than one East German and also some West Germans bitter and disappointed. Continue reading →

The 15^th October 2011 was the day of the ‘United for Global Change’, the day of the global non-violent protests, the day during which some 87 countries, 952 cities and some 1,039 events have been organised, making the day into a truly global event. The global motto: ‘It’s time for them to listen. It’s time for us to unite’ has inspired the event, a transnational event sharing the very same indignation – as well as the same very hope for changes – all over the world. From Europe to Africa, from Asia to America, the power of the voice of the people was going to be celebrated with enthusiasm and peaceful events: the voice of the people peacefully demonstrating into city streets and squares was to prevail. This important opportunity for being part of this global non-violent protest was completely lost in Italy. Piazza S. Giovanni in Rome did organise itself for the event as well, but something went enormously wrong. The people could not testimony their indignation nor could they verbalise their alternative politics as the power of physical violence did prevail. Contrary to general expectations, it was not the power of the transnational peaceful network which prevailed but indeed the power of violence, the power of the so-called black blocs and the power of the Berlusconi government, which did not prevent – or perhaps did not want to prevent – such a violent outcome. This is not the first time that black blocs use violence against police and peaceful protesters: G8 meeting in Genoa in 2001 was a tragic precursor. The same very government was governing and the same very inability to manage order was evident, though in that very occasion the security forces themselves have been complicit of violence against peaceful demonstrators.

What was expected to happen? Some 200,000 people from over the country were supposed to gather in Piazza S. Giovanni in Rome, denounce the responsibility of bankers and politicians in their mismanagement of the economic and financial crisis, and especially the poor performance of the Italian government whose major worry is not people’s well-being but simply to stay in power for purely personal interests. The key aim was, thus, to denounce current politics and to discuss concrete alternatives. For this event, political parties flags were not going to be displaced, but simply two banners were going to be used: ‘People of Europe Rise Up’ and ‘Cambiamo l’Europa, cambiamo l’Italia’ (Let’s change Europe, let’s change Italy). Continue reading →